No fingerprint reader on the dell studio 17 anymore?

I'm looking to get a new laptop and wanted to get another Dell Studio 17, but I was astonished when I saw that this model apparently no longer comes with a fingerprint reader? That's enough to make me not want to buy the laptop.

Does anyone know why they got rid of it? Was it too problematic? Customer service was suitably unhelpful during the online chat...

 

Probably just didn't sell very well. Dell has been pushing their FastAccess facial recognition software as far as biometric security goes. It's a bit harder to fool than the fingerprint scanner anyway; I managed to log in to my mother's E6400 with a swipe of my thumb, even though she's the only one with fingers registered to that laptop.

For the record, you can buy the fingerprint reader-equipped palmrest on its own from parts-people.com and install it yourself, which is a pretty simple process, if it's that big of a deal.

 

Thanks for your response. I greatly appreciate it.

This facial recognition software sounds interesting. Has anyone tried it? There are mixed reviews online about it....

I contacted Dell again via their online chat to ask them about the facial recognition feature on the laptops, and it seems that Dell offers this on the 15" Studio laptops but not the 17" ones. Go figure.

 

I've been using it for a few months, it's quite nice.

Send me an email at mastershroom[at]gmail.com and I'll send you a link to the software.

 

i had it on my lenovo, and frankly it was good but somehow i didnt like it that much, i liked typing my password.
Actually the good thing about face recognition is
1. you can register multiple faces.
2. if there is unauthorized access attempt, then they are photographed and stored .. so that when you log in again it will tell you who tried to access
Atleast that was lenovo ..

I am waiting for my dell to see how that works out , its always a pain for the system to load the application, recognize my face .. i hope its faster in dell and i start accepting it as a way to login, its more of change in perception, i am used to the conventional password thingy.

 

Looks like though they upgraded studio 15 to newer LED backlit screens, the studio 17 - shows
Glossy widescreen 17.0 inch display (1440x900) [Included in Price]

But dont worry, there is an integrated webcam, so as long as there is a webcam, face recognition is more or less a software that you need, you already have the hardware , and most likely the software is down loadable from dell support.

 

Is this feature on Dell's studio line something that is only software based? I have a Dell Studio 1537 with the fingerprint reader, would I be able to install the facial recognition software on my laptop and be able to use it?

 

Yep, it's just software. I got it working on my old Studio 1535, which was never sold with the program.

 

Yup. I'm using it on my desktop computer with a non-integrated webcam

 

I presume it's a Dell branded desktop? The software locked itself out on my custom-built machine.